The Books

When I came up for air, I was actually surprised to find myself in 2012 instead of 1914." - PopcornReads.com

The author at Vimy Ridge, copyright Melanie Wills

Spanning continents and decades, The Muskoka Novels take readers on an unforgettable journey through extraordinary times. The legendary lake district of Muskoka, Canada is the touchstone, the sanctuary for those who summer there, but venture onto the international stage during the catastrophic Great War and the seductive Jazz Age of the 1920s.

The outbreak of war shatters not only an idyllic summer, but also the carefree lives of a group of engaging characters as the idealistic young men go valiantly off to fight for King and Country. Women, also wanting to do “their bit”, step from genteel drawing rooms into the horrors of makeshift hospitals and dangers of driving ambulances on the front lines. All are profoundly affected by a conflict that tests their luck, strengths, loves, and loyalties. Inevitably, some fail.

The saga continues in Book 4. Watch for updates.

Click on the buttons below to get more detailed info about each book, including reviews, author's notes, and sample chapters.

Book 1: The Summer Before the Storm

It’s the Age of Elegance in the summer playground of the affluent and powerful. But their charmed lives begin to unravel with the onset of the Great War, in which many are destined to become part of the “lost generation”.

The Summer Before the Storm is a 2010 Muskoka Chautauqua Reading List winner!

Book 2:Elusive Dawn

Elusive Dawn continues to follow the lives, loves, and fortunes of the privileged Wyndham family and their friends. Living in the shadows of fear and danger awakens the urgency to grasp life, to live more immediately, more passionately amid the enormity of unprecedented death. Those who survive are forever changed, like Canada itself.

Book 3:Under the Moon

The catastrophic war is over, but those who survived now face the final battle - to rebuild their lives and protect their secrets. Meanwhile, the younger generation struggles to defy convention in a daring new era of scandalous excess and social upheaval, under the seductive moon of the glittering Jazz Age.